


The Act of Falling

by FirePyr (Aquade)



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternating Perspectives, Character Death, Conchell, Falling In Love, Multi, all canon though
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-05
Updated: 2018-11-05
Packaged: 2019-08-19 08:04:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16530659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aquade/pseuds/FirePyr
Summary: Aphrodite is the goddess of love, and her children often represent different aspects of that.Drew is philautia.Silena is pragma. Or maybe agape.Mitchell doesn’t know which one he is yet, but here’s his obsession:Mitchell loves with all his heart. He loves with undying loyalty and adoration, and this is probably why it will kill him in the end, because Mitchell loves with his entire body, soul, and mind; and everyone he loves keeps leaving him.(A Conchell fic with alternating PoVs for each chapter.)Crossposted on:http://firepyr.tumblr.com/post/179792235662/the-act-of-fallingandhttp://aminoapps.com/p/p4gmeu





	The Act of Falling

**Chapter One – MITCHELL**

     Maybe it shouldn’t have counted, but the first time Mitchell fell in love (or at least thought he did), he was nine.

     He was nine, and it was the first time he had ever heard of the Greek gods and their children and the skills each demigod possessed.

     He was nine, and he was terrified.

     There was a whole new world that had been opened up to him, big and wide and filled with terrifying creatures he had thought were only in his storybooks.

     He was nine, and for the first time in his life, he was completely alone, because his parents were dead and it was all. His. Fault.

     He is nine, and he is sitting in front of a campfire. He’s still wearing the collared shirt his father had suggested he wear for the dinner. At one point in the evening, his hair was styled by his mother, but it’s long since fallen in strands plastered against his forehead. He can’t see it in the fickle lighting but he knows there are small blood splatters at the bottom of his shirt and on his sneakers. He very carefully shuts that line of thinking off and tries not to think at all.

     Only one of those fails.

     He’s nine and feeling oh-so-alone despite the multitude of people around him, and all of a sudden, there is a hush. Everyone is staring at him, and he _doesn’t know why_ and he wants to _cry_ and—and—

     “Hah! Pay up, suckers,” a loud voice breaks through the silence. “Told ya he’d be an Aphrodite kid. No one else would have eyelashes like _that_.”

     And all of a sudden, the attention is taken away as people start both grumbling and cheering alike, forking over bills and golden coins. And Mitchell is only nine and confused and he wants to cry and go home and _why aren’t these people bringing him home_ and _he wants his parents_.

     ( _But they’re gone_ ).

     He can feel his eyes burning up and the oxygen in his lungs turning into fire and he hates himself a little bit for it, because the kids at school had laughed at him when he cried, because crying is a sissy thing to do and he is a coward and he wants – wanted – to make his parents proud so he shouldn’t – couldn’t – cry, so _why is it so hard not to_?

     And just as he had been about to break, a blanket is draped across his head, falling around his shoulders – scratchy with suspicious stains but warm and comforting. An arm pulls him against a warm side, a heavy weight across his shoulders that makes the burning in his eyes both ease and strengthen.

     “Hey, kid, guess you’re one of mine then, huh?”

     Mitchell hiccups, not knowing how to reply to that but reveling in the feminine voice – so alike and yet different from his mother’s.

     ( _He’ll never hear his mother’s voice again.)_

     Clutching the blanket, he looks up to see a beautiful girl – teenager – young lady, smiling softly at him, hazel eyes reflecting the campfire’s glow. She looks like an angel, and since he’s arrived here, Mitchell has never met anyone he wanted to ask more than her about if his parents are in heaven.

     “It’s Mitchell, right?” she continues, heedless of his lack of reply.

     ( _Stupid, stupid, stupid. You don’t leave people without an answer_.)

     “I had a feeling you’d be one of mine. My name is Silena. I’m your new counselor. Now, what do you think of heading in early and leaving these losers behind?” she asks, a rhetorical question, winking at him.

     “Ooh, low blow, Silena,” someone calls out from the crowd.

     She rolls her eyes, fondly, not designating to leave an answer, and rises to her feet reaching out her hand to pull him up.

     (But he feels he’s accepting more than that, as he takes her hand.)

     He doesn’t fall in love with her that night, but he begins to.

     He falls in love with her in the days – weeks – months – that follow, scampering on her heels like an overgrown puppy, eyes full of adoration.

     (That’s what the rest of camp call him sometimes, jokingly asking Silena where her puppy went when Mitchell isn’t around. He takes it in good stride, as does Silena, who – once seeing he doesn’t mind it – starts calling him ‘pup’.)

     Silena’s not perfect, of course. She’s incredibly picky about cleanliness and having everything be orderly and _pretty_. She’ll be brutal about it too, not hesitating to berate even Clarisse for leaving the stables a mess. (And Clarisse may only be a few years older than him, but she’s bigger and _scary_.) And as far as the Aphrodite obsession necessity (or so people say) goes, Mitchell thinks Silena’s gotten off pretty light with her obsession of all things orderly and pretty.

     (At least she’s not like Drew, who’s all sharp edges and mean and leaving a long trail of broken hearts.)

     Mitchell doesn’t know what his obsession is yet, but that’s not a priority.

     Anyways, Aphrodite obsession aside, Silena is _perfect_ , in Mitchell’s eyes, and he doesn’t think he has ever loved anyone more. (Except his parents. But his parents are exceptions in a multitude of ways, now.)

     About a month in, Drew makes a despairing comment about his parents before she leaves for the school year. Mitchell flies at her with his fists, kicking and screaming and punching, until Connor Stoll knocks him down the hill, both of them rolling in the grass and mud. Drew flees. Mitchell isn’t aware he’s crying until he’s wrapped up in warm arms and a comforting voice in his ear.

     That night, he wakes up to a soft lullaby, someone rubbing his back the way his father used to do and tear tracks running down his cheeks. His throat feels clogged and itchy, and his nose won’t stop running.

     “Silena?” he asks, in the stillness of the night, having been coaxed into blowing his nose and drinking some water.

     She hums.

     He takes courage from the darkness of the room, the only light coming from the moonlight through the window. “D—Do you think my parents are in heaven?”

     The humming pauses for a second or two. “No,” Silena finally says, her simple statement sounding so final in the silence. “I think they’re in Elysium.”

     “What’s Elysium?” he asks, because he’s never heard of that word before and he really hopes it isn’t hell.

     “Well,” Silena begins, her voice soft and lilting. He falls asleep to tales of heroes and Elysium and the Isles of the Blest, and dreams of his parents walking together on the beach, smiling and happy.

     And so he falls in love with her – in her laughter and in her kindness and in her stubbornness. And when Charles Beckendorf (“Charlie”, Silena calls him. And Mitchell is quite sure this is something only between the two of them because Beckendorf would light up and smile softly at her) starts becoming a daily sight in the Aphrodite cabin, Mitchell sees how Silena’s eyes light up at the sight of him, how her smile comes even easier. He likes that, so he likes Beckendorf.

     Also, Beckendorf is four years older and quite possibly the coolest person in camp. He also lets Mitchell fiddle with the tools and metal in the Hephaestus cabin. Mitchell doesn’t understand why some people think Beckendorf is scary, because all he’s ever been to Mitchell is warm and kind. He tells Jake Mason this in complete honestly, to only to have Jake grin at him and ruffle his hair. Mitchell isn’t exactly certain Jake understands the magnitude of his words, but he lets it go.

     Mitchell carefully puts Beckendorf under Silena who is right under his parents in his list.

     (He also sees Drew’s scoff and scorn every time she sees Silena and Beckendorf together, muttering about Aphrodite’s Rite of Passage.)

     (He doesn’t know what it means, but it brings a chill down his back.)

     At this point in time, he doesn’t know what he’s feeling, but he sees two campers under the shade of the forest trees one day.

     “I think I’m in love with you,” one of them says to the other, and they start hugging and giggling.

     While he’s sure being in love is somehow different from love, he isn’t entirely sure what being in love means, so he searches it up – does research, spies on the other campers, and secretly asks the Athena cabin. Annabeth looks at him strangely but answers him with as much knowledge as she knows, haughty in the way eleven-year-olds are. He’s okay with that, because Annabeth is two years older, and she came to camp at _seven,_ and for some reason, Drew listens to her. Plus, even though she looks at him as if she’s too busy to answer his (silly?) questions, she does hand him a few books to read.

     (He also listens to the Aphrodite cabin gossip nights, but for being the children of the goddess of love, the word ‘love’ is mentioned very little.)

     He comes to the conclusion that love is kisses and hand holding and adoration and the need to protect. And he realizes that he likes it when Silena tackles him with a cry of “TICKLE ATTACK” and they roll around in the bed, tickling and smothering each other with kisses on the cheek and forehead and raspberry attacks on the stomach. And he feels safe when Silena leads him by the hand to whatever event the Aphrodite cabin has on their agenda. And he also feels the overwhelming need to kick anyone in the shins who doesn’t listen to Silena or makes her sad.

     (He manages to kick Drew in the shins a few times before Silena asks him to stop. He may not like it but he stops. He’d do anything for Silena.)

     So he tells Silena this one night, when they’re the only two in the cabin. The rest of the cabin is out doing who-knows-what, but it involves leaving the cabin when the sun has fallen, with bulges in their pockets and secretive grins. He’s not sure he wants to know, so he keeps quiet.

     “Silena?” he asks.

     “What is it, pup?”

     “I think I’m in love with you.”

     She laughs, a breathy sound, but it’s not malicious. Mitchell doesn’t think Silena has a malicious bone in her body. “Why is that?” she asks, amusement lacing her words.

     So he tells her all about his investigation and his conclusion. And she giggles, her hand playing with the strands of his hair. “Oh, puppy. You’re not in love. That’s just love. The familial type. _Philia_. Or _storge_.”

     _Friendship. Familial love_.

     “Explain,” he asks – says – demands.

     And she does. Not once getting impatient with him and telling him all the details of the seven different types of love.

     _Eros. Philia. Storge. Ludus. Agape. Pragma. Philautia._

     “ _Storge_ , then,” he concludes. “Or _philia_.”

     “Yes,” she agrees. The words settle between them like a heavy comforter. Warm and soft.

     Mitchell has never had a sister before. And now he has more than he knows what to do with. But he thinks – no, he _knows_ – Silena is his favorite.

     He’s told his parents he loves them before. Is it okay to tell sisters that as well? Or is that some sort of forbidden thing, like how his female friends at school would yell ‘cooties!’ when he told them he loved them?

     (Cooties, he discovered, is not a declaration of love back.)

     “I love you,” he utters, never saying the phrase to her before, but feeling like it’s right.

     “Love you too, pup,” Silena says easily, and it eases something in him he had not known was wound up.

     “I—,” Mitchell hesitates for a brief second before soldiering on. “I think I love Beckendorf too.”

     “That’s good,” Silena says. “Because he loves you too. Now go to sleep before I make you.”

     (It’d be a while before Mitchell discovers his obsession. Aphrodite is the goddess of love, and her children often represent different aspects of that.

     Drew is _philautia_.

     Silena is _pragma._ Or maybe _agape_.

     Mitchell doesn’t know which one he is yet, but here’s his obsession:

     Mitchell loves with all his heart. He loves with undying loyalty and adoration, and this is probably why it will kill him in the end, because Mitchell loves with his entire body, soul, and mind; and everyone he loves keeps leaving him.

     Losing his parents was a punch to the solar plexus, a cold hand ripping his heart out of his body, and countless nights crying.

     Losing Silena and Beckendorf will be lungs that won’t work and a confidence that isn’t there anymore and hands that shake and eyes that never seem to stop burning.

     The worst thing about people leaving isn’t the fact that they are. It’s the fact that they’ll be leaving someone behind.

     But for now, Mitchell doesn’t know that. Hasn’t yet experienced the overwhelming weight of your world falling apart around your ears.)

     So he falls asleep with a smile on his face and a feeling like he’s on top of the world and invincible.

**Author's Note:**

> I have absolutely no idea where this is going, but I wanted to post it just to share. Who knows when the next chapter will be up, so I guess you can read it as a one-shot for now until it is updated.
> 
> It’s meant to be a Connor x Mitchell story. Feel free to say if you have any other pairing you would like to see or an idea for the story. No guarantees it will happen, but your suggestion will definitely be read.


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